Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-08-20

acient additional room for their acconm-O-

.
The present honorable Commissioner. w.
A. }. Sparks, repeats the suggestions of his
predecessor, Commissioner Mcfarland, and
urges upon the attention of the Secretary of
Inc Interior the importance of authorizing
additional clerical force in the department.
The volume of business in the railroad di-
vision, and the relative capacity of the divi-
sion to pass upon the lists of selections.
presented, and the inadequacy of the force
at hand of the Commissioner of the General
Land Office, are most clearly illustrated in
the following exhibit
In 1882 lists of selections presented to the
railroad division for patent by the land
grant railroads of the United States aggre-
gated 1858, 392 acres. In 1888 the amount
had arisen to 1910, 453 acres. In 1884 the
lists OF selections had accumulated and ag-
gregated in that year IL ,S61 COS acres In
1880 the accumulation of business repre-
sented Il, 273,057 acres. In 1886 the acres
before the department awaiting its action
were 1851 ,299. Thus, in FIVE years, the
number of acres before the department
awaiting its action had risen from 1000, 0oO
to over 100000. The foregoing state
ments are derived from the official reports
over the signatures of the Commissioners
themselves.
As more fully illustrating the extent of
this incapacity of the department to exam
inc and certify for patents lands before it
for examination, the significance of the
following statement will be apparent:
The railroad division of the General Land
Office in 1881 examined $40, 446 acres and
certified that quantity for patents. In 1882
it examined and certified for patents 49,
406 acres; in 1888, All, $40 acres in 1884,
641, 1872 acres; in 1885, ,153, $50 in 1886,
100, S23 acres. The business transacted
10
the only full year under the administration
of Commissioner Sparks; with $3.50, 299
acres before the railroad division under his
administration awaiting examination and
determination by the division, it was able
to examine and certify for patents but l00,-
600 acres. For the six years reported, to-
wit, from June 80, 1881, to June 80, 1886,
there were examined aud certified for pa
tents 3,505527 acres, being an average of
5S4, 254 acres per annum. If, therefore, no
further lists of selections are presented to
the department, and the average amount
of business can be transacted in the rail-
road division in the future as in the past
as shown by the above exhibit, it will re-
quire thirty-two years to complete the ex-
animation of the land already selected by
lists OF selections, now before the depart
ment for examination.
If, however, the volume of business
transacted by the Railroad Division in the
year 1885, the only full year under the ex-
listing administration, is to be taken as
criterion of the capacity of that depart
ment for the examination of the selections
before it, 160 years will be required to ex-
anime the selections now made and sub
mitted. The capacity of the department
under the existing administration having
been tested by a fall year of administrative
effort, and found to be equal to the task of
examining and certifying 100000 acres per
annum, the lists of selections now before
the department from the Central Pacific
Railroad alone will require six years in
their examination should the department
devote itself entirely to the business sub
mitted by your company, to the exclusion
of all other lists. There is, of course, not
the slightest reason to hope that the bust
ness of your company will receive this ex-
elusive attention, and receipt of patents
for lands now applied for is, therefore
relocated to the indefinite future. In the
meantime settlers and occupants who have
in good faith taken possession of the lands
granted to your company and established
homes thereon are clamorous for title,
This delay with titles serves to obstruct
and hinder the settlement and occupancy
sequent is a loss on the transportation side
of the account. The granting of patents
upon the selections now before the depart
ment would place your company in a
position to make lists of selections cover
ing one million of acres within the next
year, and the sales of lands along the line
of your road would augment the business
of the line in the most signal manner.
THE UsELEssNEss OF FURTHER SELECTIONS
In view of the condition of things as re-
ported by the Commissioner of the General
Land Office, and in the further view of the
manner in which lists of selections have
been treated by the Government, the use
lessness of making further lists of selections
and of devoting further sums of money to
that purpose until the lists now before the
Interior Department are disposed of is alto
gether apparent. 1t is not the province of
this report to you, nor within the purview
of answers to the questions propounded, to
suggest remedies for this state OF things 1t
is, however, plain to the most casual glance
that the Land Department of the Govern
ment is most hopelessly in arrears with its
business. and to such an extent as to make
it entirely beyond its power to extricate
itself from existing complications. The
department charged with the adjustment of
these land grants and their ultimate final
duJ uulSotlOu 10 VASTLY ltldueQuSle. Inc
remedy is self-suggestive. Subsidiary de-
partments in each State and Territory
wherein these land grants are located
should be vested with the power of hearing
and of final determination of these cases.
Their position on the ground would con-
meet their knowledge more Immediately
with the nature of the questions in contro-
versy, and enable them to reach
final determination with greater facility,
and also to reach an adjudication of
the various cases more nearly in accordance
with the equities involved. With 16,5OO,-
600 acres before the Department at Wash
ington for examination, and the tested ca
pacity to hear and determine as to but
100000 acres per annum, it may be said
with reason that the process of the adiudi-
cation is practically arrested. If it is ever
to be proceeded with in manner consist
ent with the rights and interest of both the
grantOr and grantee 1t is now plainly ap-
parent that at least one hundred times the
force at the command of the Commissioner
of the General Land Office will be neces sary
to meet the requirements under this head.
1t is unreasonable, If not wholly absurd, to
suppose that in view of the existing state of
things that single department of the Coy
eminent, controlled and directed by sin
gle head, can hear and determine within a
reasonable time the vast number of cases
submitted for its attention. In his report
to the Secretary of the Interior, Commits
sioner Sparks declares that the number of
contested cases awaiting final action at the
close of the fiscal year was 6331. Of these
,227 had received some attention, but not
final action, and 5 ,104 had received no at
ton and no action whatever. OF the ex
parte cases before the department there re-
manned for final action at the close of bust
ness, 4,540, and of these 923 had received
some attention, leaving 3,617 ex parte cases
which had not been reached for examina-
ton.
CASES BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT
AT the close of the year, therefore, there
were S,121 cases before the Department
which had received no attention whatever.
AT the close of the business of the Admin
istration preceding the present one, viz
June 80, 1882, the aggregate of cases which
had not been reached for examination was
3,947. In period of four years, therefore,
there has been an increase of 4,477 cases
which had not been reached for examina-
ton, proving clearly that the arrears of the
Department under this head are constantly
augmenting instead of diminishing. With
the lapse of each fiscal year the reports of
the Commissioner show that under every
head the Department is becoming more
hopelessly and inextricably in arrears with
its business